Aggressive environment / 14 day movement suspension?

[Chris John]

Some ignorant and rude people have made you reevaluate your life choice. Wow!

Have you never encountered such individuals before in life? 

On 29/08/2026 at 13:28, nicknorman said:

The general rule is that the further north you get, the nicer the people

Utter rubbish 

Edited August 31 by Chris John

[Col_T]

Do you moor on the K&A by any chance?

[Hudds Lad]

35 minutes ago, Chris John said:

Utter rubbish

Technically I'm only about a third of the way north (possibly a quarter), living in Yorkshire, and I'm lovely. 

Imagine just how lovely I'd be if I were from Scotland!  

[dogless]

Encountering behaviour you describe @Display Name is very infrequent, but it does happen.

 

Despite what vloggers tell us, boaters are not a 'lovely community' where 'everyone helps each other' ... we're made up of all sorts of folks, on boats for a variety of reasons, and not all of them good.

 

The vast majority of your encounters with other boaters will be positive, friendly, helpful, and fun.

 

It would be a mistake to adjust your life to cope with these negative encounters.

 

In my experience angry and rude people only ever meet angry and rude people, and can start a fight in a phone box.

 

Polite, friendly, and open people generally have that behaviour reflected back at them in the 'my behaviour affects your behaviour' type of way.

 

It happened, it was unfounded and rude, but don't let it spoil your enjoyment.

 

Rog

Edited August 31 by dogless

[b00ke23]

1 hour ago, Chris John said:

Some ignorant and rude people have made you reevaluate your life choice. Wow!

Have you never encountered such individuals before in life? 

Utter rubbish 

 

Do you ever post anything useful or pleasant? Asking for a friend 😁

[LadyG]

23 minutes ago, b00ke23 said:

 

Do you ever post anything useful or pleasant? Asking for a friend 😁

Use the "ignore", it makes life much simpler.

[Mike Todd]

15 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

Likewise

Don't get me wrong - many parts of the K&A are great and quite scenic - that's one of the reasons they are popular! The Fifteen Mile pound above `Devizes is one. For us two factors dominate: one, it is a long trip just to get here, with both the River Thames and the navigable sections on the Kennett liable to flooding quite late into the season. Two, the locks are especially hard work and plenty of them. It is not just the gates, most are not too bad, but the necessity to cross via the top gates and the stirrup step is all but beyond our current capabilities! (LTRU) Amusingly, we were told back in time by BW that the reason for fitting the multi-wind paddle mechanisms was to make it easier for oldies! I find the effort expended in using them is much greater than more conventional rack and pinion. BTW, issues over mooring at the western end, or anywhere along the length, are sometimes overstated. When we last cruised Reading to Bristol and return 3 years ago, we never failed to find a mooring in much the places we aimed for overnight stopover, albeit sometimes 200m further on.

Edited August 31 by Mike Todd

[b00ke23]

19 minutes ago, Mike Todd said:

Don't get me wrong - many parts of the K&A are great and quite scenic - that's one of the reasons they are popular! The Fifteen Mile pound above `Devizes is one. For us two factors dominate: one, it is a long trip just to get here, with both the River Thames and the navigable sections on the Kennett liable to flooding quite late into the season. Two, the locks are especially hard work and plenty of them. It is not just the gates, most are not too bad, but the necessity to cross via the top gates and the stirrup step is all but beyond our current capabilities! (LTRU) Amusingly, we were told back in time by BW that the reason for fitting the multi-wind paddle mechanisms was to make it easier for oldies! I find the effort expended in using them is much greater than more conventional rack and pinion. BTW, issues over mooring at the western end, or anywhere along the length, are sometimes overstated. When we last cruised Reading to Bristol and return 3 years ago, we never failed to find a mooring in much the places we aimed for overnight stopover, albeit sometimes 200m further on.

 

I'd echo this. Parts of it are very scenic, that 15 mile pound between Pewsey and Devizes is beautiful.  

[MtB]

41 minutes ago, Mike Todd said:

Amusingly, we were told back in time by BW that the reason for fitting the multi-wind paddle mechanisms was to make it easier for oldies!

 

Ah yes, those. 10:1 (or thereabouts) reduction boxes. 100 turns typically to raise the paddle from down to up, and vice versa. Insane. 

 

They don't last long though. Curiously, they spontaneously fall off and disappear with remarkable regularity, I've noticed...

 

 

 

 

[Arthur Marshall]

6 hours ago, Chris John said:

Some ignorant and rude people have made you reevaluate your life choice. Wow!

Have you never encountered such individuals before in life? 

Utter rubbish 

As said, the further north you get, the nicer the people. The poster above is in London.

How easily are some points made.

[IanD]

1 minute ago, Arthur Marshall said:

As said, the further north you get, the nicer the people. The poster above is in London.

How easily are some points made.

I suspect it's not so much going North that makes the difference, it's where most of the CMers fighting for (and squatting on) moorings are -- and most of them are Dahn Sarf... 😞

[Chris John]

8 hours ago, b00ke23 said:

 

Do you ever post anything useful or pleasant? Asking for a friend 😁

🥱 

3 hours ago, Arthur Marshall said:

As said, the further north you get, the nicer the people. The poster above is in London.

How easily are some points made.

Hampshire actually but I tend to not stereotype people unlike the muppets on here 

[b00ke23]

35 minutes ago, Chris John said:

🥱

Hampshire actually but I tend to not stereotype people unlike the muppets on here 

 

No you'd never do that.....

 

On 14/07/2022 at 19:53, Chris John said:

The usual grey tracksuit brigade who you see hanging around during the day smoking weed have got some nice bikes. I bet none of them are paid for, well not by them. 

 

Oh hang on!

[Creaking Gate]

I found the 'boating' community to be mostly selfish and very entitled people - sure, there are nice people, but they tend to be quiet and get on with their lives.  And the level of aggression towards CaRT border lined on outright hatred, whatever they did or said.  Which became worse year on year, back in the80's / 90's i'd have said the opposite - but there you go, such is life in 'modern' Britain. 

 

...Which i always found odd, given the way the same people treated the system whilst moaning about CaRT i.e. dumping rubbish, abusing facilities, breaking taps  etc.#

 

I've since sold my boat, more through costs than the people to be truthful.   

 

Just what i found

[dogless]

After thirty or forty years I have yet to find a 'community' of boaters  ...  just a variety of folks of all ages who (mostly) seem to enjoy life messing around in boats, some briefly, some long term, some liveaboard, some on posh boats, some on wrecks and all types in between, and it's impossible to predict from the boat,  the humour of or the type of person you'll encounter within.

 

However, as with  life in general, most people are helpful, friendly and kind but there are those best avoided, even if only on a single day or in a single moment.

 

Life's one long adventure innit 😁

 

Rog

 

 

Edited September 1 by dogless

[hoopdriver]

On 29/08/2026 at 08:22, Steve Bassplayer said:

 

That's certainly not the case I've found having spent many years mainly on C&RT waters, on and off, since the early 80s.

 

There will always be the 'oddball' and those having a bad day, but generally most boaters from all walks of life get on with eachother. 

I have certainly found that there is a boating community. Mind you I’m up on the northern waterways, but certainly on the Aire & Calder and Leeds & Liverpool, where I am now, there is a sense of community. I’d also add that while you might find the odd jerk, the overwhelming majority of boaters, at least up here, are very pleasant and look out for each other. 

[Anonathy]

On 29/08/2026 at 07:05, Display Name said:

It's only day 7 of living a narrowboat and I'm already wondering if we've made a massive mistake?

 

We're travelling east on the K&A as we need to get as close to Milton Keynes, as soon as possible, for my girlfriends new job.

 

We had to stop for a couple of days, as our section of canal closed due to low water. As soon as CRT lifted the restriction we started moving again...

 

We didn't even get through the first lock at Great Bedwyn before we had two very aggressive boaters shouting abuse in my and my girlfriends face. They very strongly believed that all movement was banned until the 30th September and wouldn't listen to anything else.

 

We both avoid confrontation, are very placid, considerate people and new to boating. As such, we continuously offered these people (as politely as possible) the opportunity to explain to us what we'd missed and why we were wrong about the canal being reopened. This only resulted in them shouting more abuse and insults at us. It quickly descended to the point that it could've become physical.

 

Anyway, after a very tense hour or so of being abused at our first lock of the day. We confirmed (with a phone call to CRT) that the canal was indeed open as normal and we could proceed. Despite what the local boaters were trying to enforce by intimidation.

 

This has left me with a sour taste in my mouth and a very negative feeling about the boater 'community'. There's the two of us living in a cheap 90's 40'er, so it's not like we're swanning around in some massive, shiny new widebeam. We're very average people, just trying to get by, like everyone else.

 

I know I've got at least a fortnight of solo cruising to do once my GF starts her new job near MK and I'm now really wishing we didn't bother doing this at all.

 

These guys were insistent that the 14 day movement suspension notice meant that you're not allowed to move until 30th September. That's not how I read it at all.

 

What's the general opinion on the notice?

 

Can I move if CRT say the canal is open?

 

Or am I going to get (verbally / physically?) abused at every set of lock gates I have to stop for the next 3 weeks???

 

Thanks for reading.

The biggest mistake you can make is letting the ****holes get to you, which is far easier said than done I know, depending on where you are (even moving on a few hundred metres can make all the difference) they can be the odd one out or you can rather unfortunately be the odd one out. Recently as I moved off someone emerged from their rear hatch and was clearly waiting for me, here we go again I thought, having become somewhat used to this being the starting procedure of being shouted at for zero reason. As I cruised pass I could only wonder at what nonsense yet unknown I was to be berated for, but it turned out he was a nice chap who was asking if I was coming back because he preferred the spot I’d just moved from, which caught me completely off guard. Of course these interactions are far more common but the bad ones stick with you longer. So don’t let the bad ones affect how you judge the next ones, otherwise you’ll end up seeing problems where they don’t exist, which in turn ruins the sense of “community”. Ignore the people who don’t nod or wave either, don’t let their grumpiness dictate how you treat the others. It’s a good lesson in how a few bad eggs spoil the bunch, because not only is their behaviour at the time annoying it ends up affecting your interactions with others in future and potentially ruins those too.

 

Edited September 2 by Anonathy

[Steve Bassplayer]

21 hours ago, hoopdriver said:

I have certainly found that there is a boating community. Mind you I’m up on the northern waterways, but certainly on the Aire & Calder and Leeds & Liverpool, where I am now, there is a sense of community. I’d also add that while you might find the odd jerk, the overwhelming majority of boaters, at least up here, are very pleasant and look out for each other. 

I wonder whether some feel more comfortable/safer sticking with social media communities?

[Arthur Marshall]

I did find a sort of community spirit when I lived on board and travelled widely, in that you kept running into the same friendly people and catching up on gossip. Different now I'm purely a leisure user, and there isn't really a community spirit on my mooring in that I've never seen half the boat owners in the twenty years I've been there, though the three of us who regularly go boating are good friends. Not sure if you can have a community of three.

[ditchcrawler]

1 hour ago, Arthur Marshall said:

I did find a sort of community spirit when I lived on board and travelled widely, in that you kept running into the same friendly people and catching up on gossip. Different now I'm purely a leisure user, and there isn't really a community spirit on my mooring in that I've never seen half the boat owners in the twenty years I've been there, though the three of us who regularly go boating are good friends. Not sure if you can have a community of three.

Very similar, this week we met in passing a boater we had not seen/spoken to for two years. The only communities that I see are the more run down narrowboats and very tatty fibre glass cruiser that seam to group together and sit around firs drinking together in the evenings 

[MtB]

11 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

Very similar, this week we met in passing a boater we had not seen/spoken to for two years. The only communities that I see are the more run down narrowboats and very tatty fibre glass cruiser that seam to group together and sit around firs drinking together in the evenings 

 

You do get communities on CRT moorings too. But only small ones of a dozen or so people, and they don't form any part of the imaginary huge "boater community" newcomers to boating seem to think exists. 

 

Yes boaters tend to go the extra mile to help another boater but most of the time, they have never met them before and have no idea who they are, other than a boater in trouble. But that does not make "a community" in my book. Just helping a stranger with a shared interest which most of us would do anyway. 

 

 

[EventualBoater]

7 minutes ago, MtB said:

But that does not make "a community" in my book. Just helping a stranger with a shared interest which most of us would do anyway. 

 

 

Community is more of a buzz word these days. 

Youre part of the boating community, the star trek community, the doctor who community etc. 

It's more a word used to describe the group of people enjoying the same hobby/passion/lifestyle rather than a positive thing. 

Each community has good and bad people. Some more noticeable than others. 

[MtB]

4 minutes ago, EventualBoater said:

Community is more of a buzz word these days. 

Youre part of the boating community, the star trek community, the doctor who community etc. 

It's more a word used to describe the group of people enjoying the same hobby/passion/lifestyle rather than a positive thing. 

Each community has good and bad people. Some more noticeable than others. 

 

To me, a community is a bunch of people who all know each other in one way or another. 

 

I think CWF could arguably be described as a community. 

 

 

 

 

[ditchcrawler]

20 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

To me, a community is a bunch of people who all know each other in one way or another. 

 

I think CWF could arguably be described as a community. 

 

 

 

 

More so than random boaters out ther

[EventualBoater]

26 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

To me, a community is a bunch of people who all know each other in one way or another. 

 

I think CWF could arguably be described as a community. 

 

 

 

 

That's what it should mean. I agree. 

Like with a lot of things though, the language is changing.